Over the last decade, several key texts have sought to examine the recent transformations of penality, most prominently among them mass imprisonment, through Political Economy conceptual tools. Hence, this literature, which is fairly heterogeneous both in perspectives and conclusions, contributed to updating the theoretical framework of Political Economy of Punishment, which was crucial to reframing critical thought on punishment in the 1970s and 1980s. Moreover, those recent works have coincided with the unfolding of a theoretical line aimed at explaining the rise of punitiveness of the last decades from the standpoint of the rise of neoliberalism, understood both as a political project and as an economic doxa. By contrast, another prominent body of literature has tended to emphasise the cultural and/or political components of the evolution of penality – and hence its variability – to some extent side-lining the political economic analysis.

Taking account of this theoretical context, it appears to be particularly timely to reflect on the current condition of the analytical field of the Political Economy of Punishment from the plural perspectives that arose from these new contributions on the subject.

First, the Conference aims to debate whether those recent texts are shaping new theoretical tools for the political economic analysis of punishment. Second, the Conference seeks to analyse whether and how the recent Political Economy of Punishment literature may be related to the texts on neoliberalism and punishment and to those which are focused on the cultural and political elements of the contemporary penal trends. Last, but not least, the Conference is aimed at examining to what extent the Political Economy of Punishment literature may contribute to critically analyse the evolution of penality since the onset of the so-called Great Recession.

Therefore, we will consider contributions on a wide range of issues that encompass the broad theme of The political economy of punishment today: Visions, debates and challenges, particularly on the themes of: